Suggestion Saturday: January 19 , 2013

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Heuristic: if a place has sidewalks, it votes Democratic. Otherwise, it votes Republican.

Skeptically Emerging. Rob is an atheist who thinks there should be room in the emergent/emerging church movement for people who don’t believe in god. This is his brand new blog on theology, improving relations between theists and non-theists and (maybe) starting a church for skeptics. I’m a little wary of how this idea would pan out in a large, organized group like a church but I admire Rob’s enthusiasm and willingness to think outside the box and look forward to seeing how his ideas develop.

The Moral Case for Sex Before Marriage. I don’t actually care when, how or with whom my readers have sex (assuming it’s consensual) but I do strongly prefer living in a city where ideas about sex and sexuality aren’t dominated by one voice. There are so many different cultures and religions here in Toronto that it’s all but impossible for one group to speak for everyone. That’s a good thing.

Nor can the unpleasantness of being criticized and ridiculed be separated from the immediate cause of that criticism and ridicule — the fact that the criticism and ridicule is a response to those folks trying to enforce, encode and defend legal discrimination.

So both sides have real grievances, but those grievances are in no way proportional or comparable.

To what extent do traditional folk songs tell the truth? The Ballad of Tom Dooley attempts to peel back the embellishments behind a sequence of terrible events that inspired a folk song. When I was a teenager we’d occasionally catch wind of silly rumours other Christians started about my parents. It’s amazing how quickly the truth can be garbled.